PLAINFIELD, Conn. — Plainfield officials voted Friday to shift $50,000 into an insurance-claims account to keep town government running after someone broke into the town's computer systems earlier in the week, forcing town hall and the police department offline days before Election Day.

The Board of Selectmen and Board of Finance met jointly in an emergency session Oct. 30. The town learned Wednesday morning that its systems had been breached, a town official told the boards, and the town began working with its cyber insurance carrier that day. A forensic audit is being done by the firm Arctic Wolf, officials said.

"We call them the bad actor got into the system," the official said, adding that the intruder "tried to access some things inside the system" before being shut down. Employees were locked out of their computers as a protective step, officials said. "That wasn't done from the invader, the intruder," a town finance official told the boards. "That is actually done by our IT company to protect us."

Police working from Putnam

A deputy police chief read a letter from the police chief, who did not attend, saying the breach had affected police operations and urging quick approval of the funding. The letter said a recent review had identified outdated equipment and called for separating the police department's network from the town hall network so that a future breach in one would not spread to the other.

The deputy chief said police dispatchers are working out of the Putnam Police Department, with the town's phone lines, including its two 911 lines, routed there. An officer is also stationed inside the Plainfield police station around the clock, he said. "There's no impact to public safety," he told the boards, adding that 911 and routine calls were not affected.

The finance official said the police department faces the longest recovery. "I believe it's a minimum 30-day window before they allow you back in," the official said.

Money from an unused pool repair line

Officials said town hall's financial, tax and assessor data were intact and that election systems run on a separate system. "The integrity of the election, which was first and foremost on my mind, that's what we were concerned with," the finance official said.

The town bought eight laptops for about $4,800 so departments could work without the town server, officials said. The town's cyber insurance carries a $10,000 deductible, the finance official said, and police overtime and other costs tied to the breach will be coded to one account and submitted to the insurer.

The $50,000 comes from $200,000 set aside for a town pool repair that officials said turned out not to be needed. A board member noted that under the town charter, a request of more than $50,000 would require a town meeting vote. The selectmen approved the transfer and sent it to the Board of Finance.

Some board members said they wanted changes. A town official said a similar breach had happened about four years earlier. "What are we gonna do about it? And enough's enough, in my opinion," the official said, adding that the town's IT company had been asked to present recommendations at a later joint meeting.

Another board member said the town needs a plan for notifying officials during an emergency. "It's terrible finding this stuff out on Facebook," the member said. The official who called the meeting apologized to the other selectmen for the delay in communicating. "I take that on and it was my fault," the official said.